Consulting children

PHIL McCARROLL19 May 2014, 5:13 p.m.

THE Child Friendly By Design 2528 project has combined with KidsFest to enable children from throughout the region to creatively express their ideal place to live, at an event at Crew Park in Warilla today.

THE Child Friendly By Design 2528 project has combined with KidsFest to enable children from throughout the region to creatively express their ideal place to live, at an event at Crew Park in Warilla today.

CFBD 2528 is a Healthy Cities Illawarra initiative that aims to involve children and young people in the design of outdoor areas to ensure they are child friendly.

Cardboard Creations is an annual event held at the park, where young people use cardboard boxes to build their idea of a perfect house.

"We've done it for the last two years and it's been really popular," CFBD 2528 project co-ordinator Nikke Gladwin said.

"We've had easily more than 100 kids come along each time and they really seem to enjoy it.

"This aspect of the project is specifically about giving children a chance to have a voice about how the urban environment should look."

Crew Park has been one of the pilot sites for the CFBD 2528 project, with young people given a chance to have a large input into how the park is designed.

Their ideas have been very community oriented.

"All the ideas we've got from them are about what can we do to make the area suitable for the broader community and not just children," Ms Gladwin said.

"One of the common things that we hear is that trees and flowers always seem to be missing and they'd like to see more of those as well as more natural play elements."

Cardboard Creations will be held over two sessions at Crew Park, corner of King and Queen streets, Warilla. A session for preschool children will run at 9.30am and a session for primary school children will begin at 3pm.